IUC in Yokohama as an Advanced Student

People often ask me why I decided to attend IUC, the advanced Japanese program in Yokohama, after I had already passed JLPT level 1. I also get asked whether or not I thought it was worth the money ($15,000 tuition). Good questions. Time to put it on paper so I never have to answer it again!

Continue reading IUC in Yokohama as an Advanced Student…

Harvey Quest: Find the Restaraunt

Calling all Kanto-based JapanNewbies!

An incredibly long time JapanNewbie reader and friend pointed this out to me a while ago.

This restaurant has my name!

Unfortunately, all we have is this shoddy keitai picture, and a link that has the stores phone number and address on it. In fact, the restaurant may have moved…

I must have some kind of connection with it. Maybe this means something.

Your mission is to go to the restaurant, and email me pictures.

ONEGAISHIMASU!

By the way. Today is my birthday!

- Harvey

Becoming Ghetto

There is a restaurant in Yokohama called “GETTO-KA”.

This may be something only I find funny but…

In Japanese, you can put the kanji 「化」after a word, to give it the meaning “to change into” or more simply, “become”. Serious uses of this form include… 「深刻化」which means “to become serious” or “escalation” or “to become aggravated”, and 「都会化」which means “to become city”, or “urbanization”. Another common one is 「高齢化」which refers to “aging”, as in 「高齢化社会」”aging society”.

Now, the kanji for this shop is completely different… But if you pronounce the name, it sounds like… “Becoming Ghetto”.

Geek humor. Laugh!

- Harvey

Yokohama Ramen Ichirokuya

There are as many styles of ramen in Japan as there are pizza in the US.

Speaking of pizza, I really miss US “Taco Pizza”, not octopus tako, I mean Americanized-Mexican taco. Anyone here know the Godfathers Pizza chain? Their taco pizza has these Dorrito-esque chips on top, piled high… Yummy soft thick crust… I love it.

Anyway, I’m still in Japan. Let’s get back to Ramen.

This restaurant is called Ichirokuya and is a chain that originated in Yokohama but can be found all over Japan.

The ramen here has a thick, almost butter broth.

It fills you up.

You’ll taste it the next morning when you wake up.

This was definitely a unique ramen experience, but I can’t say I would go out of my way to visit again. I guess I’m more into the thin, あっさり type of ramen broth.

Hey, my camera is workin’ the macro on that close-up shot though isn’t it?

- Harvey

Yokohama Yoshimuraya Ramen

It’s ramen time again!

I finally got a chance to check out Yoshimuraya in Yokohama. I ride my bike past this place on my way to and from school, and at night it seems to always have a long line in front.

That means it must be good right? (JapanThink)

You pick what kind of ramen you want before entering this place at a vending machine at the front door. The broth and noodles are all the same, but you can chose the size, and additional ingredients to add.

I chose “Stamina Yasai” (stamina vegetables), and a medium sized bowl.

The seating consists of one giant counter, and in the middle you can watch the employees doing their reckless ramen routine. The floor has a drain, so the employees wear rubber boots (can I say.. goulashes? I love that word!) and freely splash ramen soup all over the floor. It’s kind of fun to watch their haphazard style. It seems to get the job done though!

Another friend ordered a different type of Ramen, I believe it was cabbage… I’m guessing this from the giant chunks of cabbage sticking out of the ramen… That you can also see… Below… Yeah.

Fun place, good food, hefty volume, highly recommended!

- Harvey

Yokohama Beer

Every area of Japan has their famous food. Hida Takayama has their beef, Tokyo has their Monjyayaki, Osaka has their Takoyaki, Hokkaido has really gross meat flavored caramels, and of course really yummy Genghis’s Khan.

But other than a really cool China Town, what does Yokohama have?

Beer!

A regular beer will cost you about 205 yen. Approximately 2 USD.

However the Yokohama stuff will cost ya 472! For 20ml less! More than double!

I guess it’s quality over quantity huh. Give it a try next time you’ve got some extra cash burning a hole in your wallet.

I’m 苦学生 now so I can’t go near the stuff.

You can even take a tour of a brewery in Yokohama and get some free beer at the end!

- Harvey

Yokohama Customs Office

We took at school field trip to the Yokohama customs museum. English link for museum info here.
The customs museum is near the Sakuragicho Minato Mirai area (more or less), down by the water (sorta, check the map). It’s not a place I would have visited on my own, but it was much more interesting than I expected.

There are cool exhibits about busting contraband smugglers.

There were 250 kg of illegal substances behind a fake wall in a container discovered about 6 years ago. These containers are used for shipping things by boat, and a built to be either 25 meters, or 40 meters long according to ISO specifications (apparently). The inspectors noticed that this one appeared a bit shorter than usual from the inside.

250kg of whatever this type of illegal substance is makes for 150億円 (15,000,000,000 dollars?). And it was lost!

That’s enough to get someone fired. This amount of substance could have been used 8,330,000 times. That’s enough to keep Yokohama genki for quite some time…

Apparently bad people also stick contraband into Budweiser cans. What person on the up-and-up would drink that stuff anyway?

On another note…

This is Custom-kun.

He’s the mascot (or image character, as Japanese like to say) for Yokohama Customs.

This guy is tough on crime.

Go visit the Yokohama Customs Museum if you have a chance. Custom-kun is waiting.

Click here for a close up of our furry illegal baggage-catching friend.

Why does custom-kun look like a fat bear-dog?

- Harvey

North Korean Spy Boat in Yokohama Museum

This is rather timely…

In the Yokohama Bay Area there is a Japan Coast Guard Museum. The main attraction is a North Korean Spy Boat which was sunk December 22, 2001 by the Japan Coast Guard near Kyusyu.

The recovered spy boat and it’s contents are really the only items on display in the museum. You can get up close and personal to examine the bullet holes, and view gear the spies had on board such as machine guns and rocket launchers. Video footage recorded by the crew of the coast guard during the incident is also on display.

Similar video is also available of the Korean spy boat encounter on YouTube.

The museum is free of charge, and easily accessible from Minato Mirai in Yokohama, so if you are in the area it’s worth a visit.

A quick breakdown of the encounter as it happened follows.

A suspicious unknown ship was discovered south west of Kyusyu at 1:10 AM on December 12th 2001. Orders were sent for a patrol boat and air support from the Japanese coast guard to investigate.

At 6:20 AM the coast guard patrol boat arrived on the scene and began to follow the unknown ship. The boat appeared to be a fishing boat, however there was no smoke coming from the chimney, and other suspicious issues regarding the boats behavior tipped the coast guard off that it may be a spy boat.

At 13:12 the coast guard gave repeated orders in several languages (I remember Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and English from the video tape in the museum) for the unknown vessel to halt and identify itself. The commands were ignored, and the coast guard proceeded to fire warning shots into the air, and into the surface of the water near the boat. These warnings were also ignored.

Next, the coast guard proceeded according to protocol and fired controlled shots at the spy boat. These initial shots are not meant to disable the boat or injure any crew. Therefore the shots were aimed at the tail, and head of the boat, places where crew and vital equipment are not likely to be located. Also, before firing, a verbal warning including the intent to shoot, and the location the shots would be aimed was given, and ample time allowed for the enemy boats crew to get out of harms way, or surrender if they should desire.

Once the shots commenced, the crew of the spy boat began waving what appeared to be a red Chinese flag, and tried to give the appearance of a Chinese boat (I don’t know how one can “give the appearance of a Chinese boat…” Just translating from the museum hand out!). Also, during this time some items, likely evidence of the spy boats intent, were thrown off the back of the boat.

All of this continued until 22:09. Then the Japanese Coast Guard boat attempted to maneuver to better cut off the spy boats retreat, and the spy boat suddenly opened fire with a small automatic weapon.

After receiving damaging fire from the spy boat, the Japanese boat returned fire with intent to incapacitate the enemy vessel. Within 3 minutes of opening fire, the spy boat suffered a large explosion, from what appeared to be a self-destruct device, and began sinking rapidly.

The self-destruct control box.

Items from the North Korean spy boat
Pin of our Dear Leader

Peanut Candy (spies gotta eat!)

Note it’s produce at Ryongsong factory in Pyongyang Korea. Authentic!

The museum is free of charge. It is closed on Mondays. If you are in the Yokohama area it’s worth a visit!

Other pictures

Here is a Japanese website with more pictures of items which were on the boat.

- Harvey